Blue Abyss
by ZDrive
Summary: Yullen! Merfolk…beautiful, pure, sweet. Lies. They are seductive, dark, predatory, and can't love. Eating human souls once every three years, Allen has accepted he is a beautiful monster who has no heart, but will a certain samurai change that?


**Blue Abyss**

**Summary: Yullen! Merfolk…beautiful, pure, sweet. Lies. They are seductive, dark, predatory, and can't love. Eating human souls once every three years, Allen has accepted he is a beautiful monster who has no heart, but will a certain samurai change that? **

**Prologue: Beautiful Monster**

Although his memories before his life in the ocean have faded and paled, he remembers that, instead of cool and seemingly carved of marble, his body was soft and warm, reminding him he was human. But that wasn't all he remembered.

He remembered the smell of his father's grease paint- Mana, he thought his name was- and the smell of the sea. He also remembered the scent of his mother's favorite perfume in the morning and all through the day as she teased Mana how she married a man twice her age, since his hair had grey streaks running through it more and more.

His father had retailed with laughter in his smooth, quiet, soothing voice, saying how she would, too, soon get grey streaks in her long hair. She smacked him playfully and he quickly corrected himself by adding that she would still long beautiful with grey in her light brown hair. And when they would walk out and spot him eavesdropping, they would laugh and tease him mercilessly. He would feel his mother's small, yet rough hands pick him up and hug him to her slight, thin body, hearing the rustle of cloth and her perfume would waft strongly around him.

His father would then pull him away gently from her, scolding her lightly by her name- he was sure it was either Rachel or Rochelle, he forgot her real name- while saying she would suffocate him. She would hit his shoulder again and giggle, her voice like soft, tender velvet, cloth he had only felt once before in a circus when he had walked past the curtains of a fortune teller's shop and he had brushed his fingers lightly across.

And that was all Allen could remember of life as a human.

Allen dug his fingers into the seaweed, white hair floating in front of his bright grey eyes. His slim blue-silver tail, at least six feet long from the waist down, flicked the fan-like fin at the end, twice as wide as his head, gently sending ripples through the sun filtered water.

He was currently residing in a shallow sand dune, the rays of the sun seeping through the water and warming his back. He dragged his fingers through the sand, brushed the soft, fleshy body of a sand dollar, and pulled it up. He laid it flat in his palm, stroking it idly. He looked up, the sun's shining image wavering from the waves on the surface.

Allen sighed and let the sand dollar go, before pushing up and gliding to the surface. The scales on his tail glittered and his black tattoo, which spread beautifully from his shoulder blade to the tips of his fingers, was thrown into great relief.

He didn't know where he got it from, but he was sure it was the ocean's way of marking him as her own and as the true predator of the ocean. Which reminded him…

He was Hungry.

He remembered when he was first Hungry. It was a mess. Four was enough to suffice, especially when first Turned, because then you go mad and barely remember what happened until after you eat. The first thing he saw was glazed eyes and pale skin. And then he saw the blood. It stained his hands red and it took forever to wash it off.

He swore to himself he would rather die than feed again, but…he knew he would turn rabid and savage if he held off any longer, and began working his way to only feeding when necessary and managed to build resistance. Now, he can hold off feeding for three years, until he can hunt and feed on at least two human souls.

Today was the end of his three years.

He paused before reaching the surface, watching with emotionless, grey eyes as a large ship began to slowly pass over him. He had grown numb to the deaths of humans. It was how he survived, like how a hyena survives from the scraps of the lion's meal, or how a wolf hunts and kills a stag.

The wolf and hyena survive, and that is how they truly live. Allen wasn't sure if he was truly living, surviving yes, but living…? No, perhaps not. He didn't exactly know. Was he destined for more?

"…"

He didn't know.

But it didn't matter. Without a heart, who can truly live their lives? Only animals, because simply surviving is their life itself. But the ones who were once human or are still human…they have hearts. You just choose to use it, or not. Allen chose not to long ago, because it just killed him, because his heart told him not to feed and let himself die and waste away. But his instincts and mind refused and encouraged him to feed. After a while, his mind and instincts won.

Besides…how could he keep his promise to Mana, to keep walking, to keep living, if he listened to his heart and killed himself?

He had managed to survive this far, without taking many souls of the humans, but he was still a monster.

He just chose the monster he wanted to be.

…

…

…

**_On the ship 'Ocean Maiden'..._**

Kanda Yuu's boots made a dull sound against the damp wood of the deck, one hand on the hilt of his sword, Mugen, as he looked at the sea through narrowed, suspicious eyes. He was never one to ignore his instincts, and his instincts said that something was about to happen. Something bad.

"Aye…you feel it too, don't cha'?"

Kanda didn't flinch from the raw, gruff voice of a thick, sturdy man with bags under his small eyes that indicated how he never had a decent night of rest when sailing. His voice was rough from the salt in the air and ocean, his hair matted and course from the same source, streaked with grey.

But he did what he loved the best, and Kanda couldn't blame him for it.

Kanda didn't turn, deciding to keep his eyes on the ocean, calm waves lapping at the damp side, wood a few shades darker than the dry parts. After five days rocking on the sea, he had gotten used to the rocking of the boat and the smell of sea salt, seaweed, and fish. He turned away eventually, walking steadily and strongly, as if sure and calculating each step, each breath, each though, he took in. "Anyone with descent instincts would," he replied simply over his shoulder.

He passed through the ship, heading the back, eyes on the over enthusiastic redhead dangerously near the wheel as he talked in an animated voice to the captain's right hand man, who looked ready to sucker punch the idiot.

Kanda couldn't really blame him.

Fingering the hilt of his sword, he paused to look back out at the sea. He wrinkled his nose when the smell of fish hit him again along with the breeze. Just because he had gotten used to it didn't mean he liked it. As an exorcist of the Black Order, he had thought he would be going not only on a long term mission, but somewhere not as close to the salty water, and certainly not something so boring besides gathering information on a 'super-duper top secret thingy', as Lavi put it, which meant he was clueless as well, but wasn't about to question or argue with Bookman, not when he himself had requested it and was tight lipped about it all, small black eyes glinting with a hint of steely determination. It may have made Lavi more curious, but Kanda just wanted to get it over with. He didn't have anything to slice up except for maybe fish, and the captain wouldn't let him hack at his meal with Mugen no matter how much he snarled.

God, he hated fish.

"Oh, Yuu!" Lavi suddenly called, red hair a blaze of bright fire in the sunlight as he waved like an excited little kid at Kanda, who scowled in turn.

"What?" He ground out, striding over.

Lavi grinned from his perch and pointed at a rumpled map he held in his hand. "Look! *Ecce! Bookman wrote a note on this part of the map…right where we are heading! Rumor has it that these are where ships sink the most, for unknown reasons in these waters. It says, uh, ah…" He squinted one eye closed, tilting his head and the map this way and that. "Crap, it's in Hungarian…dang Panda knows I hate reading Hungarian…um, I think it says…'Mind your own business, idiot boy…?'"

Kanda rolled his eyes, and made a move to walk away when there was a sudden, hoarse scream. Acting totally on pure instinct, Kanda drew his katana in one fluid movement, dark eyes darting around, and finally meeting Lavi's, who was a deathly white pallor. The map slipped from the red head's fingers and landed lightly on the slightly damp, wooden boards.

Kanda's eyes narrowed, realizing his comrade was looking over his shoulder and whirled, snarl creeping across his lips, only to freeze and stare.

A ship, dyed red with a sea of red tainted waters surrounding it, was wrecked and shredded on a couple of jagged, slippery rocks, the side painted in black cursive that side, '_The Sea Fox." _And clinging to a rope, suspended over the blood washed deck, terrified out of his wits, was the captain.

Kanda wasn't stupid. There was too much blood, bound to attract sharks, too, on the ship to have simply been a ship wreck. Was it a massacre, a Civil battle broken out on the ship? Or was it beaten and broken because another passing ship, pirates, had run into them and become rapidly hostile. Kanda also recognized that name, an infamous ship with pirates who pillaged nearby towns settled at the seaside. It wasn't uncommon for pride to raise its ugly head and usually reared it whenever pirates came across each other. Either to steal each other's treasures, ship, or kill them so as to gain more reputation, and less competition. But a shiver laced up the Japanese man's spine and he realized that this very well might not be the case.

The pirate captain spotted them and nearly sobbed in relief.

"Save me!" He screeched, throat heavy and raw from the salt in the air and water, and from simply screaming and yelling in general. "It'll kill me!"

"Why should we," Kanda demanded loudly, storming forward and standing at the very front of the ship, a sneer now on his lips. "You have killed, raped, and stolen…why not leave you there? Surely this is your punishment?" Kanda continued mockingly. Really. To think it was alright to do all the things the pirate had done and NOT expect punishment or karma or irony to come and bite you hard in the ass? Pathetic!

"Silence, soldier," murmured a creaky, aged voice and Kanda turned to glare at the old man named Bookman.

"And why not?" Kanda demanded, blood boiling.

Bookman looked back pointedly at the scared man on the wrecked and abandoned ship, his whole crew probably dead. "He has a story to tell s," he rasped, and motioned with on frail and thin, wrinkled old wrist to help him.

The pirate captain sobbed in relief, but froze and snapped his head to a rippled in the bloody water, face draining rapidly of any leftover blood.

"Oh, God…" he whimpered.

He turned back to the other ship so hard and fast he received whiplashed and let out a blood curdling scream. "HURRY!" He wailed, clutching tighter to the rope, tears had begun to stream down the scarred and hardened, leathery skin of the man's face. "I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"

"Calm the fuck down," snapped a very irate Kanda, grumbling as he seated himself on the rail and swung his legs over. "I'm fucking coming, you loser." He paused to eye the red waters. He better not get bitten by a shark or _someone _was gonna pay.

"IT'S HERE! I'M GONNA DIE, OH MY GOD, OH GOD!" The captain still screamed shrilly. Bookman remained silent, staring at the criminal with narrowed eyes while Lavi and the crew had looks of disturbance and disgust on their faces. But Kanda and the captain of the ship they were on shot him a suspicious look. Why exactly was this hardened criminal of the seas breaking down like a baby? Were there already sharks in the area?

And then, "THE DEMON – hurk!"

They could only watch, watch in horror when a figure of glittering scales and white flesh leap from the water at impossible speeds to impossible heights and sink its teeth into the throat of the panicked pirate and drag him down to the bloody waters below. The pirate's blood spurted across wood, air, and water, the last gurgle and pleas for help drowning in blood and salt water.

Bookman nodded.

"There, gentlemen…is our prize."

…

…

…

***Ecce- means 'look' in Latin**


End file.
